Costs of Ajua weddings

We have just started the process of gathering information for a wedding ceremony and reception off-site of the AI we will be staying at. Because of all the raves posted on here about Ajua, we contacted them for information and are at the moment a bit overwhelmed by the costs of their wedding coordination fees (already at close to $6,000 before we even start talking about a post-ceremony cocktail hour and, of course, the reception itself!!!)

For those out there that have used Ajua and enjoyed the results, can we ask for a ballpark on what the total cost of your wedding day was and what all that included? This will really be helpful to us.

The budgeting process of this is hardly easy for a couple of newbies trying to wrap their brains around all the costs that are involved in the ceremony and the reception and all the peripherals (flowers, DJs, transportation, etc,). Any help/advice anyone can offer would be great. And again, we love what we heard about Ajua but are starting to wonder whether in the big picture they're in our price range.

JillianS I hear your pain on this situation. We actually put down a deposit ($300) to have Ajua as our coordinators..we were all excited and pumped especially since they were so speedy in their emails and also thought it was awesome that they have their own planning site. Everything was fine..until we received an email from Stephanie stating that they were raising their prices. She stated it was due to fuel costs..so certain things changed. I believe that their wedding coordinating fee is really high. But at the time we thought we were getting a deal..

But we started to realize that it all added up and we too realized that it would be near $6k w/out the dinner!!! so we started to look around and then I seen on here that someone was using Blue Parrot Weddings. I did contact them before Ajua, however, they never returned my email. Looked like I had the wrong contact information. So..the BDW member on here gave me the info..and now we are using them. The ceremony will not be on a secluded beach..which I'm a little bummed about but it does save $550 that Ajua charged. Also, their services and packages start at $1589 i believe?? That includes their coordination services, beach set up, videographer for 2 hours, your bouquet and his bout, altar set up and a mexican duo for the music for the ceremony!! great deal! So far Paula(wedding coordinator) has been awesome! She is great at answering your emails and does NOT charge a $300 "pre-planning" fee that Ajua does. Insane.